The present invention relates to an apparatus for the operation, in particular controlling, of a robot having a product gripper which is designed to represent at least one approach position of the product gripper for the picking up and/or placing down of a product, in particular of a food product, as a graphical element on a display device.
It is known to arrange such a robot in a cutting line having a slicer for the slicing of the food products and having a packing machine for the manufacture of ready-for-sale portioned packages disposed downstream of the slicer viewed in the conveying direction between these two machines. The food product is first sliced into product slices by the slicer, with in each case a plurality of product slices being combined to a portion of the food product. The portions are then transported by means of an incoming belt to the robot which approaches a pick-up position to pick up the portions from the incoming belt with the aid of the product gripper. The portions are subsequently each transferred to a target position on the packaging machine, with usually a plurality of target positions being preset in accordance with a configuration or format set. As a rule, an outgoing belt can furthermore also be approached to which portions are transferred which do not satisfy preset demands.
The aforesaid approach positions of the product gripper of the robot can be represented in each case as a graphical element on a display device to allow a setting of the coordinates of the respective approach position. For this purpose, the respective graphical element can be selected first and the coordinates for the respective approach position can subsequently be input via a numerical keypad. For this purpose, the respective operator must, however, be familiar with the coordinate system used by the robot.